BREAKING: The family of a Black student sues Texas' governor and attorney general over ongoing suspension for his hairstyle.

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

A Black student was suspended for his hairstyle. Now his family is suing Texas officials

The family of the Black high school student Darryl George has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Texas governor and attorney general over being suspended for his hairstyle.

apnews.com

A Black student’s family sues Texas officials over his suspension for his hairstyle​

HOUSTON (AP) — The family of a Black high school student in Texas who was suspended over his dreadlocks filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Saturday against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.

Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31. Officials with the Houston-area school say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code.

George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code, saying his hair is neatly tied in twisted dreadlocks on top of his head.

Darryl George’s supporters allege the ongoing suspension by the Barbers Hill Independent School District violates the state’s CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1.

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The lawsuit also alleges that Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, in their official duties, have failed to protect George’s constitutional rights against discrimination and against violations of his freedom of speech and expression. George “should be permitted to wear his hair in the manner in which he wears it ... because the so-called neutral grooming policy has no close association with learning or safety and when applied, disproportionately impacts Black males,” Allie Booker, the family’s attorney, wrote in the lawsuit.

Spokespeople for Abbott and Paxton, both Republicans, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Saturday.

The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to stop George’s in-school suspension while the case is in court.

“Time to bring the fight to Barbers Hill ISD. We’re going to drop the hammer of accountability in the face of racism,” Candice Matthews, national minister of politics for the New Black Panther Nation and a spokesperson for George’s family, said in a statement Saturday.

The lawsuit, filed in Houston federal court by George’s mother, is the latest legal action taken related to the suspension.

On Tuesday, Darresha George and her attorney filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency, alleging Darryl George is being harassed and mistreated by school district officials over his hair and that his in-school suspension violates the CROWN Act.

They allege that during his suspension, George is forced to sit for eight hours on a stool and that he’s being denied the hot free lunch he’s qualified to receive. The agency is investigating the complaint.

Darresha George said she was recently hospitalized after a series of panic and anxiety attacks brought on from stress related to her son’s suspension.

On Wednesday, the school district filed its own lawsuit in state court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act.

Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole has said he believes the dress code is legal and that it teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefiting everyone.

The school district said it would not enhance the current punishment against Darryl George while it waits for a ruling on its lawsuit.

The CROWN Act, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles, including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots. Texas is one of 24 states that have enacted a version of the act.

A federal version passed in the U.S. House last year, but was not successful in the Senate.

State Rep. Rhetta Bowers, who authored Texas’ version of the CROWN Act, said Friday that George’s hairstyle is protected by the new law and she called on the Barbers Hill school district to end his suspension.

“The Texas CROWN Act was passed to prevent situations like this, and it is very disappointing to see Barbers Hill ISD attempt to find loopholes to skirt the law and perpetuate hair discrimination,” Bowers said in a statement.

George’s school previously clashed with two other Black male students over the dress code.

Barbers Hill officials told cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford they had to cut their dreadlocks in 2020. The two students’ families sued the school district in May 2020, and a federal judge later ruled the district’s hair policy was discriminatory. Their case, which garnered national attention and remains pending, helped spur Texas lawmakers to approve the state’s CROWN Act law. Both students withdrew from the school, with Bradford returning after the judge’s ruling.

​

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

let’s play ball bytches

 

[OperationNumbNutts]

Good. Play the same game.

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

Props…

 

[Roger king]

Texas is a white supremacist fascist hell hole, the whole state government top to bottom is filled with bigots and white supremacists.

 

[Yapdatfool]

Good chance the family wins.

Nonbinary Child's Long Hair Results in Suspension, Dress Code Amended After Legal Battle

Magnolia ISD in Texas suspended a then-11-year-old nonbinary child for having long hair until a lawsuit forced a gender neutral dress code policy.

www.edweek.org

Taylor Pugh: 4-Year-Old Texas Boy Battles School Over Long Locks

Taylor Pugh: 4-Year-Old Texas Boy Battles School Over Long Locks

www.huffpost.com

 

[NoirDynosaur]

Suspending a breh over black natural hair gotta be one of the ludicrous decisions ever made.

May justice be served

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

 

[bnew]

Black Student’s Suspension Over Hairstyle Didn’t Violate Law, Texas Judge Rules

The trial was the latest development in a case that has prompted scrutiny of education policies and race in the United States.

www.nytimes.com

Black Student’s Suspension Over Hairstyle Didn’t Violate Law, Texas Judge Rules​

The trial was the latest development in a case that has prompted scrutiny of education policies and race in the United States.

Darryl George, a high school student in Texas, was suspended for violating a dress code because he has locs, or long ropelike strands of hair, that he pins on his head in a barrel roll.Credit...Michael Wyke/Associated Press

By Christine Hauser and Patrick McGee

Patrick McGee reported from Anahuac, Texas.

Feb. 22, 2024Updated 4:26 p.m. ET

A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that a school district’s dress code, which it used to suspend a Black student last year for refusing to change the way he wears his hair, did not violate a state law meant to prohibit race-based discrimination against people based on their hairstyle.

The student, Darryl George, 18, has locs, or long ropelike strands of hair, that he pins on his head in a barrel roll, a protective style that his mother said reflected Black culture. Since the start of his junior year last August, he has faced a series of disciplinary actions at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, about 30 miles east of Houston, after refusing to cut his hair. He was separated from his classmates, given disciplinary notices, placed in in-school suspension and sent to an off-campus program.

The hearing on Thursday, in the 253rd Judicial District Court in Anahuac, was in response to a lawsuit filed in September by the Barbers Hill Independent School District. The lawsuit argued that Mr. George was “in violation of the District’s dress and grooming code” because he wears his hair “in braids and twists” at a length that extends “below the top of a T-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, and/or below the earlobes when let down.”

The district asked State District Judge Chap B. Cain III to clarify whether the dress code violated a state law called the Texas CROWN Act, as the defendants, Mr. George and his mother, Darresha George, assert. The act, which took effect on Sept. 1, says a school district policy “may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.” It does not specifically mention hair length.

“The CROWN Act does not render unlawful those portions of the Barbers Hill dress and grooming restrictions limiting male students’ hair length,” Judge Cain said.

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“I am not going to tell you that this has been an easy decision to make,” the judge said. Addressing the family, he encouraged them to “go back to the Legislature or go back to the school board because the remedy you seek can be had from either of those bodies.”

Allie Booker, a lawyer for the Georges, said she would appeal the ruling and seek an injunction to prevent the district from punishing Mr. George pending the outcome of a federal civil rights lawsuit that he and his mother filed last year against the state’s governor and attorney general.

The Georges left without commenting to reporters, more than a dozen of whom had gathered at the courthouse. State Representative Jolanda Jones said she walked them to their car.

“When I accompanied Darryl and his mom to the car, I saw a child that was crying, and he was upset and he didn’t understand,” Ms. Jones, a Democrat, said in an interview. “His mother was visibly shaking.”

Dr. Greg Poole, the superintendent of the Barbers Hill Independent School District, said in an emailed statement that the ruling “validated our position” that the dress code does not violate the state law, which “does not give students unlimited self-expression.”

The trial was the latest development in a case that has prompted scrutiny of education policies and race in the United States. At least 24 states have adopted laws that make it illegal to discriminate against students or workers because of their hairstyle.

The case involving Mr. George began soon after officials at the school objected to his locs and told Ms. George that the length of her son’s hair, even though it was pinned, violated the district’s dress code. The district subjected him to punishments, including suspension, after he refused to cut it.

Ms. George and her son filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in September against Texas’ governor, Greg Abbott, who signed the law, and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, saying they allowed the school to violate the act.

Their lawsuit is seeking a temporary order to stop Darryl’s suspension while the case moves through the federal court system, and accuses Mr. Abbott and Mr. Paxton of “purposely or recklessly” causing Ms. George and Darryl emotional distress by not intervening.

Supporters of the family, including legislators and activists, also said the measures violated the CROWN Act.

The family’s lawsuit said that Mr. George wears locs as an “expression of cultural pride” and claims that his protections under the federal Civil Rights Act are being violated because the dress code policy disproportionately affects Black male students.

In October, Mr. George was transferred to an off-campus disciplinary program. In December, he was allowed to return to his high school but then was given another in-school suspension, this time for 13 days.

In January, Mr. Poole, the superintendent, defended the policy in an advertisement published in The Houston Chronicle, saying that districts with dress codes are safer and have higher academic performance, and that “being an American requires conformity.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

 

[Nymbus]

I'm getting that style next

 

[Supa cat]

Superintendent - Barbers Hill Independent School District

 

[bnew]

Black teenager suspended over dreadlocks in Texas heads to court in CROWN Act case

A Black teenager in Texas repeatedly suspended for his dreadlocks will get his day in court Thursday in a case that advocates say has broad implications for racial hair discrimination. Darryl Georg…

thehill.com

Black teenager suspended over dreadlocks in Texas heads to court in CROWN Act case​

BY LEXI LONAS - 02/22/24 6:00 AM ET

A Black teenager in Texas repeatedly suspended for his dreadlocks will get his day in court Thursday in a case that advocates say has broad implications for racial hair discrimination.

Darryl George, 18, has been in in-school suspension for months after Barbers Hill High School said his hair violates policy. His family sued, saying the school’s regulations go against Texas’s newly established CROWN Act.

Allie Booker, George’s attorney, says the case ties into a larger movement “regarding discrimination of minority groups as a whole.”

The case is based on a section in the school’s handbook that contains a rule stating male students cannot have their hair past their eyebrows or earlobes. George wears his dreadlocks on the top of his head, away from his face and neck.

Victoria Kirby York, director of public policy and programs at the National Black Justice Coalition, said Texas’s “law highlights the importance of cultural hairstyles but does not take into consideration the gender expression component.” Barbers Hill High, she said, “was able to opt out of the policy” by saying it did not apply specifically to the hair length of male students.

“They’re saying that this isn’t about the African heritage, this is about the length of the hairstyle, and that the length is inappropriate. But when you ask the question, ‘Why is the length inappropriate?’ The answer is because it, and let’s be clear, the length is only inappropriate for boys,” York said.

For years there have been efforts to get a national version of the CROWN Act, which prevents racial discrimination based on hairstyles, through Congress, but they have been unsuccessful.

The White House said in 2022 it “strongly supports” CROWN Act legislation and that the president “believes that no person should be denied the ability to obtain a job, succeed in school or the workplace, secure housing, or otherwise exercise their rights based on a hair texture or hair style.”

The goal, according to the National Urban League, is to create “a more equitable and inclusive experience for Black people through the advancement of anti-hair discrimination legislation.” To that effort, the group says there has been “tremendous success elevating the public narrative around this important issue and inspiring a movement to end hair bias.”

State District Judge Chap Cain said in January that arguments in the case would be heard Feb. 22 but did not issue a temporary injunction, leaving George in suspension through much of his junior year as the case plays out.

George’s family has also filed suit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), accusing them of failing to enforce the CROWN Act.

“We look forward to the Texas judicial system clarifying the CROWN Act,” said Greg Poole, superintendent of the Barbers Hill school district. “Hair length of male students is only constitutionally protected for Native American students. Length of hair is not protected in the Texas CROWN nor in any of the CROWN Acts in the 24 states that have one.”

“The Texas CROWN Act protects hair texture and the wearing of braids, twists and locs. Those with agendas wish to make the CROWN Act a blanket allowance of student expression. Again, we look forward to this issue being legally resolved,” Poole added.

William Hill, a legal strategist who worked on the law in Texas, acknowledges it does not directly address the length of hair because “in certain circumstances, the length of one’s hair could be a safety hazard” in a work setting.

“They’re correct, it doesn’t address length because length really isn’t what we’re talking about. What we’re talking about those hairstyles that protect curly and coily hair,” Hill said, arguing “it seems that what the principal is trying to do is to impose his cultural aesthetic on the student body. It has nothing to do with safety. It has nothing to do with disrupting class, because George’s hair is not all over the place.”

Booker said the school previously had a rule that hair could be longer, but it had to be tied up, which students complied with.

“What these individuals were doing was being able to tie up and sew up and put up their locs just like Darryl George is doing in an effort to comply with the dress and the grooming code,” Booker said. “Once [the principal] saw that a person could still have locs and be able to tie them up,” language was changed in the handbook so hair had to be a certain length when let down.

“Well, if somebody’s hair can’t come below the eyebrow, it’s not gonna be long enough for you to braid. It’s not going to be long enough for you to loc, especially coarse, Black hair,” she said.

Booker says there has been “tremendous support” from the public over this case, and she is confident George will win in court.

“One of the things that George constantly says is, ‘I just want to be a regular kid. I just want to be a child, and they’re not letting me be a regular child. And then they’re discussing things with me that are just way above my head. They want to talk to me about constitutional rights and my role in my hair,’ and he’s like, ‘I’m just a kid,’” Booker said, adding “he’s just really frustrated.”

While the hope for advocates is this case both strengthens and clarifies the CROWN Act, some think it may not be an easy process.

As an elected official in Texas, the judge, Hill said, will face “social and political pressures” to side with the school policy, and then the “case will need to be appealed.”

“If the judge is courageous enough to follow the law, then I think it means that these challenges to the CROWN Act will become more sophisticated, because it’s not going to discontinue challenges,” he said.

TAGS CROWN ACT CROWN ACT HAIR DISCRIMINATION HAIR DISCRIMINATION